We left last Tuesday for week-long visit to Washington. We packed up the van, put the rabbit in her carrier, and set off. We spent a night in an Idaho RV park, followed by three nights outside of a friend's house in Bellevue, three nights outside of our house in Port Angeles, and then our last night was at a rest stop outside of Boise. During the trip we socialized a bit, I went into the office for a few days, we emptied out our long-standing storage unit, tested out our composting toilet, drove through and parked in downtown Seattle, and we finally got to try Buena Luz Bakery. On our last day out, we spent a few hours skiing at Sun Valley. Overall, I thought it was a very successful trip, and it was a good reinforcement that I can live in a moving box.
Since you read enough of my thoughts, let's see what Cameron thinks. Below is a transcript from an interview I recorded at a diner in small-town Idaho:
Aisha: Ok Cameron, how did this trip go?
Cameron: It went well.
Aisha: What about it was 'well'?
Cameron: We had heat – the van heat stayed up pretty well. Most nights we had a 40 degree temperature difference, so it was 20 out but we stayed above 60.
Aisha: Was that your biggest worry?
Cameron: It was one of my biggest worries because it's something we still have the most to improve on of the systems that are ready.
Aisha: What were other worries that you had?
Cameron: About finding places to stay, which always went fine. And about parking in Seattle, which also went fine.
Aisha: As far as the places to stay, what did you learn for future trips?
Cameron: There are a lot of RV parks that are either all long-term stay and are not really places we would want to be staying, or are right in the city center.
Aisha: I know that you download a new app related to finding stays. What was that app and what do you think of it?
Cameron: It's called AllStays and it looks like it has a lot of data but it's not exactly the best-made app or easiest to use.
Aisha: Yeah, it seemed like my app, Overlander, was probably a little bit more useful.
Cameron: It looks like it has most of the same information. This one [AllStays] probably has more data because it has a bigger community working on it.
Aisha: Tell us about the last night. Where did we stay our last night?
Cameron: We stayed at a rest stop in Idaho. We pulled up where the semis were and pulled up in that area – not in a semi spot, but nearby. It was comfortable. You could definitely hear the semis, traffic, and road noise but it wasn't that bad. It was nice to be right on the road. We pulled in around 9:30 and then left about 8:00.
Aisha: Will you make a habit, you think, of staying in these free stops?
Cameron: I think if we're on the road it will make a lot of sense. Not if we're staying in that town.
Aisha: What are you most proud of?
Cameron: I'm very happy about the heating system. I think that the window covers that are finished and have the fabric on them are working really well. I still would like to potentially insulate them but I don't know for sure on that. Then also put more magnets in and make the magnets a little more elegant within the windows. I think the layout is working but we need more storage.
Aisha: What are some things you knew you had to add and then what are some things that you've newly discovered are needed.
Cameron: There's not really anything that's new, but we know we need to finish the walls and insulation and redo all of the walls, basically, with something permeant. I think it might make sense in some areas of the walls to go a little thicker than we were planning just because there are some areas where it makes sense to; there's not really a reason for the walls to be as thin as possible. I definitely – oh! One thing that I might end up changing – ok, other things that we haven't done yet: we need to finish the whole bench seat. That will be really nice because having a place to sit that you don't have to use the swivel seats for will be good. I need to do all of the storage and stuff: countertops, sink, all of that stuff, plumbing.
One thing that I think might end up happening, which I kind of knew about, is I'm probably going to take the ends of the beds three quarters [inches] back, so I'll have to cut off some 80/20, which means I'll have to buy more tools. But, in order to actually get the beds to be liftable, or to have an end on them, we have to put that wood on the end and in order to have room for that we have to bring it back, which there is space for. I just haven't been able to think of a way to actually mount the wood on top of the aluminum, not against the aluminum since that would also leave the aluminum visible, so I don't really want to do that. I'll probably end up doing that [mount the wood on top], which to get clean cuts I will actually have to do some work. But that will be fine, and then we'll be able to put a nice end on each side of the bed which will help hold the mattress together. We also might be able to put handles in to lift it up in. That will be nice.
I definatley want to do hydraulics on the bed lift. Definatley want to close off the batteries compartment area. We also want to put slides in to get stuff in and out from under the bed – the garage area – easier. We still have quite a bit of work. Oh – insulating the door. I don't really know how that's going to end up looking, putting a wall on the door. I need to do that. And cutting out the step is something I want to do kind of as soon as possible because it's easy to step on accidentally.
Aisha: Now tell me about having a rabbit in the van.
Cameron: Well, it was going really well, but then the rabbit tried to pee on my shirt, which I think was her being kind of territorial and me not paying enough attention to her. So I had to deal with that, but that wasn't too bad, but then she started using the underside of my pillow as a potty, so we found poops there a couple of times, and then she peed off the end of the bed. She was not trying to pee on the bed; she was trying to pee off the bed but that obviously caused a bunch of mess because there was splatter down below.
Aisha: Why was she on the bed in the first place?
Cameron: Well she figured out how to get on the bed. First she was getting up by jumping on the box and then jumping on the bed, so we moved the box. Then she was jumping on the toilet, going across the counter, and then getting on the bed. Then she just was jumping straight up [from the floor] on to the bed. We don't really have a way of blocking her off unless we lock her in her area, which we don't really have a permanent way to do right now. But she was being great on the bed, normally. She was just lying down, sleeping, laying out. She really liked it up there, but I think she just got too comfortable with the space. Her area, we need to make sure stays her area, and the rest of the area needs to be a little bit novel. So we'll see. I think we just need to go slower with the introduction process so she's not picking her spot for the litter box in the whole van but knows it's in the under-cabinet area.
Aisha: At one point you called her a "diva." Explain that.
Cameron: Did I call her a diva? Why did I call her a diva?
Aisha: I think it was because she was snuggling up next to me while we were going to bed –
Cameron: Yeah! And she was getting a lot of room in the bed. But she was being really sweet. I think she's really good. She doesn't like being locked in her carrying crate at all; she gets upset and tries to get out, but she seems pretty comfortable in her little area, even if the van's moving, and she's been doing really well sitting on our lap, at least for a certain amount of time. She does get antsy eventually and wants to go down, but she's been doing really well on laps.
Aisha: So you let her stay on your lap while you are driving?
Cameron: Aisha! I never let her stay on my lap while I was driving!
Aisha: You started this!
Cameron: No, I never let her stay on my lap while I was driving. I let her stay on the passenger's lap while we were driving, but Aisha let her stay on her lap while she was driving once, I think.
Aisha: Is she living her best life living in a van?
Cameron: She's doing pretty well. I think she'd like more space, but we were also able to let her out in the garden of my parent's house and the backyard of our house and she really has a lot of space to explore. As long as she's getting out she'll be fine. She did flop a couple of times.
Aisha: Overall, do you think that living out of a van for a year will be a doable and comfortable situation?
Cameron: Yes, it will be. Once we get storage it's going to be way better because we won't have just stuff moving around and all over the place. And once we have counter tops that will be really nice.
Aisha: Speaking of counter tops, what was the food situation in the van?
Cameron: We don't have a stove or a sink, so it was Jet Boil-based food. We do have the fridge so we could put stuff in there, but no way to heat things up.
Aisha: Any further commentary on this test van trip?
Cameron: It went pretty well. There's still a lot of work but I'd like to get things feeling more finished.
Aisha: What's the timeline for getting everything fully finished and on the road?
Cameron: By April is the hope.
Aisha: Sounds good, thanks for your time.
No comments:
Post a Comment